Dr Shruti Desai,  a postdoctoral researcher at the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre (RUMC) facilitated an online talk during a session entitled “From bench to bedside: preclinical research in Innovative Medicines Initiative neurodegeneration projects” at the 2021 Neuronet public event as part of the 31st Alzheimer Europe conference. The meeting aimed to enable a mixture of researcher, patient and carer delegates to share their experience and knowledge, assembling all types of people who are affected by dementia: those who are living with the disease, caregivers of people with dementia, patient organisations and researchers working in the field of dementia.

As part of a session moderated by Prof. Craig Ritchie of the University of Edinburgh, Shruti’s talk entitled: PD-MitoQUANT: Quantification of Mitochondrial Morphofunction in Neuronal Cells was followed by audience questions. This was Shruti’s first talk delivered to an audience where patients were present.  As such, Danielle Nicholson of Pintail Limited posed a few questions to Shruti about this experience.

Would you do it again?

Absolutely, I only wish in future there is an opportunity to give a talk in person, it would be more organic interaction.

What skills did the chairperson possess to make the meeting format of researchers and patients/ carers work well?

Prof Craig Richie was very friendly, and we discussed in advance how to proceed with the session.

Did you find it emotionally taxing to deliver your talk knowing your audience?

It was a pre-recorded talk, and at the time, yes, I wanted to be clear and precise. I knew I had to spend more time on introducing PD-MitoQUANT and Parkinson’s since it was an Alzheimer’s conference. Not only the audience was diverse but from an entirely different field.

Would you avail of training for this type of activity if it was offered? If so, what might you expect from it?

The organisers had sent a link earlier, to give us a short training with the dos and don’t to help us keep the online webinar interesting. That certainly helped a lot.